European Union crude oil imports by sea decreased in 2024 and 2025

By Marek Grzybowski

Oil tankers had a respite at the beginning of 2025. Global oil export volumes from January to April totaled 4.93 billion barrels, according to data from analyst firm Kpler. Oil supply was 1.3% lower than in the same period in 2024 and was mainly due to a 9% drop in imports by China, the world’s largest importer and consumer of oil. Some EU countries and the United States also followed this trend.

Oil purchases were also reduced by companies supplying the United States (down 14%) and Italy (-12%). Importers using fuel terminals in Dutch ports reduced their imports by 1% in January-April. It should be noted that the port of Rotterdam is the main transshipment hub for oil, handling between 95 and 100 million tons of this cargo annually. This volume is mainly handled by refineries in Rotterdam itself, as well as in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

It should be emphasised that according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), in 2024 the Netherlands handled an average of 825 thousand barrels per day (b/d) of US crude oil supplies, which is a 32% increase compared to 2023. In 2022, they handled twice as much per day as before the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine. After the outbreak of the war as a result of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the fuel terminals of the Netherlands became the beneficiary of the increased demand for energy raw materials from the European Union industries. Crude oil transshipment terminals gained in particular, literally and figuratively.

Globally, demand declines in a number of markets were somewhat offset by increases in imports to India (up 1%), Japan (up 5%) and Taiwan (up 7%). India’s crude oil imports were record highs in the January-April period. Importers from Malaysia, Lithuania, Myanmar and Oman responded to relatively low oil prices, data from Kpler showed.

East Asia Demand Downturns
– Rising sales in these markets bode well for oil exporters, and all of these economies should continue to see growth in crude oil purchases in the coming years. However, it is unclear whether these growth markets will be able to offset the declines seen in East Asia (China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan). It could be argued that East Asia has been the most important importing bloc in the oil market for the past decade or more, accounting for around 40% of total crude oil imports as of 2019, notes Gavin Maguire, an oil analyst at Thomson Reuters.

Kpler notes that East Asia has purchased only 37% of total crude oil exports so far in 2025, the region’s lowest share in six years. If China, Japan and South Korea in particular continue to see modest annual declines in crude purchases, global oil exporters may need to boost sales growth in frontier markets to replace lost volumes in East Asia. So, after a strong 2023, when global crude supply rose 4.6% year-on-year, 2024 has seen a much quieter year at fuel terminals. Global crude cargoes rose a modest 0.4% year-on-year to 2,194.6 million tonnes in January-December 2024, excluding all cabotage trade, according to ship-tracking data from LSEG, Banchero Costa Research reports.

Decrease in loadings in the Persian Gulf
2024 started off worse for oil exporters, as global supply at loading ports already in January-February 2025 fell by 4.8% y/y to just 348.1 million tons. Exports from the Persian Gulf decreased by 5% y/y to 139.5 million tons in this period of 2025. The Persian Gulf countries secured a 40.1% share in the seaborne oil trade. Exports from Russian ports (including Kazakh oil) also decreased in the first two months of this year by 7.1% y/y to 35.9 million tons. The share of Russian and Kazakh oil amounted to 10.3% of the global trade in this commodity. – OPEC oil production fell slightly in April despite a planned increase, according to a Reuters study, led by a reduction in supply from Venezuela due to renewed attempts by the US to restrict re-exports and declines in Iraq and Libya – reports Alex Lawler from Reuters.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries supplied 26.60 million barrels per day to the market in April, down 30 thousand barrels per day compared to March. The slowdown in supplies from some producers was offset by higher supply from Iran.

– The reduction came despite the fact that OPEC+, which includes OPEC and its allies, including Russia, began to withdraw from the last group of supply cuts in April. The group plans to accelerate supplies to the market in May and June – announces Alex Lawler.

Exports from South American suppliers increased by 2.6% year-on-year to 32.3 million tonnes, with a share of 9.3%. From the US, exports fell by 11.3% y/y to 30.4 million tonnes in January-February 2025, accounting for 8.7% of the global market. From Southeast Asia, exports fell dramatically by 33.2% y/y to 15.4 million tonnes in January-February 2025. Banchero Costa Research suggests that this “reflects changes in the re-export of volumes of Russian origin”.

On the demand side of the oil trade, the largest importer of seaborne crude oil in January-February 2025 was importers from the People’s Republic of China. Oil transshipment terminals accounted for 22.4% of the global trade of this commodity by sea. China’s imports fell by 7.6% y/y to 76.2 million tonnes in January-February 2025 from 82.6 million tonnes in January-February 2024. In the following months, Chinese importers completely suspended imports of US crude oil. As recently as February 2025, China was importing 149,000 barrels of US crude oil per day. This is a significant blow to US shale oil producers, as China has been importing large volumes of US crude oil since March 2020.

European Union slowdown
EU27 imports fell 5.1% y/y to 75.3m tonnes in the first two months, accounting for 22.4% of global trade. Oil supplies to India rose 2.1% y/y to 39.6m tonnes in January-February 2025. Imports from the ASEAN region fell 10.5% y/y to 39.5m tonnes. It is suggested that this includes Russian volumes that were later re-exported elsewhere in Asia.
The European Union is once again the world’s second-largest importer of oil. It briefly overtook China in 2022. Seaborne imports to the EU27 increased by 4.7% y/y to 472.4 million tonnes in January-December 2023. The EU accounted for 21.9% of global seaborne oil imports. In January-December 2024, EU27 oil imports increased by 1% y/y to 396.8 million tonnes.

Around 15% of the volumes of crude oil discharged in the EU in January-December 2024 were carried by VLCC tankers, around 39% by Suezmax tankers, and around 43% by Aframax tankers. The largest EU ports in which crude oil was unloaded in 2024 were Rotterdam (96.9 million tonnes), Trieste (39.5 million tonnes), Gdańsk (34.7 million tonnes), Wilhelmshaven (20.4 million tonnes), Fos (20.1 million tonnes), Le Havre (19.8 million tonnes).

Seaborne imports from Russian ports (including non-Russian crude such as Kazakh oil) fell again early last year by 3.8% y/y in January-February 2025 to 10.1 million tonnes. This was down by more than half from 22.8 million tonnes in January-February 2022. In March, Russia’s monthly export revenue from fossil fuels rose by 1% m/m to €637 million per day, while export volumes increased by 6%. Revenues from seaborne crude oil rose by 14% m/m to €212 million per day, while export volumes increased by 24%. In March, 380 vessels exported Russian crude oil and oil products, including 164 shadow tankers. Thirty-six percent of these tankers were at least 20 years old or older. The oldest ship carrying Russian oil in March was over 30 years old.

In April 2025, Russia exported 23.5 million tons of crude oil by sea, down 7% month-on-month. Almost half (47%) of these exports were carried by G7+ tankers, up four percentage points from March. Since January, the G7+ share of this shipment has increased from 35% to 47%, while the share of “grey fleet” tankers has fallen from 65% to 53%. China bought 47% of Russia’s crude oil exports, followed by India (38%), the EU (6%), and Turkey (6%).

Novorossiysk remains the largest port for crude oil exports to the EU, with terminals loading around 5 million tons of crude oil per month in 2025. Russian ports have now fallen to fourth place in terms of the volume of crude oil shipped to the EU by sea. Those who transfer this oil through their terminals or perform transshipment operations between shadow ships and those not subject to sanctions benefit.